The Grihya Sutras, Part 2 (SBE30), by Hermann Oldenberg, [1892], at sacred-texts.com

PATALA 2, SECTION 4.

1. Let him send out as his wooers friends who have assembled, who are versed in the Mantras.

2. He should recite over them the first two verses (Mantrap. I, 1, 1. 2).

3. When he himself has seen (the bride), let him murmur the third (verse; M. I, 1, 3).

4. With the fourth (M. I, 1, 4) let him behold her.

5. Let him seize with his thumb and fourth finger a Darbha blade, and let him wipe (therewith) the interstice between her eye-brows with the next Yagus (M. I, 1, 5), and let him throw it away towards the west.

6. If an omen occurs (such as the bride's or her relations weeping), let him murmur the next (verse; M. I, 1, 6).

7. With the next (verse; M. I, 1, 7) let him send an even number of persons who have assembled there, and who are versed in the Mantras, to fetch water.

8. 8 With the next Yagus (M. I, 1, 8) he places a round piece of Darbha net-work on her head; on that, with the next (verse; M. I, 1, 9) he places a right yoke-hole; on this hole he lays with the next (verse; M. I, 1, 10), a piece of gold, and washes her with the next five verses (M. I, 2, 1-5), (so that the

water runs over that gold and through the yoke-hole); with the next (verse; M. I, 2, 6) he causes her to dress in a fresh garment, and with the next (M. I, 2, 7) he girds her with a rope.

9. Then he takes hold of her with the next (verse; M. I, 2, 8) by her right hand, leads her to the fire, spreads a mat, west of the fire, so that the points of the blades in it are directed towards the north, and on this mat they both sit down, the bridegroom to the north.

10. After the ceremonies have been performed from the putting of wood on the fire down to the Âgyabhâga oblations, he recites over her the first two (verses of the third Anuvâka).

11. Then he should take with his right hand, palm down, her right hand which she holds palm up.

12. If he wishes that only daughters may be born to him, he should seize only the fingers (without the thumb);

13. If he wishes that only sons may be born to him, the thumb.

14. He takes (her hand) so as just to touch her thumb and the little hairs (on her hand),

15. With the four verses, 'I take thy hand' (Mantrap. I, 3, 3-6).

16. He then makes her step forward with her right foot, to the north of the fire, in an easterly or northerly direction, with (the formula), 'One step for sap' (M. I, 3, 7).

17. At her seventh step he murmurs, 'Be a friend' (M. I, 3, 14).

Footnotes

258:8 4, 8. As to the last sentence of this Sûtra, comp. the statements collected by Hillebrandt, Neu- and Vollmondsopfer, p. 59.